The Leshen In The Witcher Season 2 Explained
By William Rodriguez
Clearly, Andrezj Sapkowski's Leshy is no card-playing forest trickster, but his appearance in the novels (combined with his mythological origins) suggests that the monster may act as yet another manifestation of the less than savory behavior of humans. The Leshy is, after all, a protector of the natural environment. CD Projekt Red's Leshen (via "The Witcher" wiki) shares many a characteristic with its centuries-old Slavic relative. It has, for instance, the ability to shape-shift into a murder of crows, as one Reddit user points out, and it's given various attributes of creatures that might dwell in a forest. It stands much taller than a human man, or even a Witcher, too.
On "The Witcher" Season 2, the terrifying monster loses the antlers but maintains its awe-inspiring height and gains the ability to move, grow, wind, twist, use its branches like fearsome tentacles, and change form in truly wicked ways. The Leshy of Slavic mythology can grow to the size of a tree and shrink to no taller than a blade of grass, and can take on the form of whatever creature it likes, per PBS' "Monstrum." This plays out in Season 2 when a mutated Leshen finds its way into the body of Eskel (Basil Eidenbenz), Geralt's (Henry Cavill) good friend and a fellow Witcher. It alters his behavior and eventually takes over his entire body, turning the monster killer into a monster. Sadly, when the Leshen-consumed Eskel nearly strangles Geralt's mentor, Vesemir (Kim Bodnia), Geralt is forced to kill his long-time friend. Vesemir struggles to understand how the Leshen could have mutated in such a way, and Geralt ultimately teams up with Royce Pierreson's Istredd to find out.
